The results of the elections to the 20th Knesset brought the structural differences in voting patterns between Mizrahi (Middle Eastern origin) and Ashkenazi (East European origin) Jews to the surface. However, in the heat of the ugly populist squabbling that this sensitive issue raised, another no less interesting phenomenon seems to have gotten lost, though it has far-reaching implications for the country’s future political structure. These elections were the first time that it was possible to quite accurately assess the political strength of two sectors, the Arabs and the ultra-Orthodox, which are not part of the Zionist mainstream.

The Joint List, which received 446,000 votes and 13 seats, is now the third-largest party in the Knesset. The two ultra-Orthodox parties — Shas, which represents ultra-Orthodox Mizrahim, and Yahadut HaTorah, which represents ultra-Orthodox Ashkenazim — also won a combined 13 seats. Shas won about 242,000 votes, which comes to seven seats, while Yahadut HaTorah won some 210,000 votes, which translates into six seats. This comes to a total of 452,000 votes, almost the same as the Arab parties won.

Infighting in Shas and internal bickering in Yahadut HaTorah apparently alienated some of their voters, leaving these two parties with their hard-core supporters only. In contrast, the fact that the various Arab parties were forced to coalesce into a single list makes it possible to assess their total electoral base for the very first time. It is a number from which they can only go up, not down.

Taken together, the Arab and ultra-Orthodox sectors are worth 26 seats, or in other words, almost one-quarter of all members of the 120-seat Knesset. This is a fascinating figure and an important one, too, since it points to where the sources of power in Israeli society are heading.